" Mustapha Mond paused, put down
the first book and, picking up the other, turned over the pages. “Take this, for
example,” he said, and in his deep voice once more began to read: “’A man
grows old; he feels in himself that radical sense of weakness, of listlessness, of
discomfort, which accompanies the advance of age; and, feeling thus, imagines
himself merely sick, lulling his fears with the notion that this distressing condi-
tion is due to some particular cause, from which, as from an illness, he hopes to
recover. Vain imaginings! That sickness is old age; and a horrible disease it is.
They say that it is the fear of death and of what comes after death that makes
men turn to religion as they advance in years. But my own experience has given me the conviction that, quite apart from any such terrors or imaginings, the
religious sentiment tends to develop as we grow older; to develop because, as
the passions grow calm, as the fancy and sensibilities are less excited and less
excitable, our reason becomes less troubled in its working, less obscured by the
images, desires and distractions, in which it used to be absorbed; whereupon
God emerges as from behind a cloud; our soul feels, sees, turns towards the
source of all light; turns naturally and inevitably; for now that all that gave to
the world of sensations its life and charms has begun to leak away from us, now
that phenomenal existence is no more bolstered up by impressions from within
or from without, we feel the need to lean on something that abides, something
that will never play us false-a reality, an absolute and everlasting truth. Yes, we
inevitably turn to God; for this religious sentiment is of its nature so pure, so
delightful to the soul that experiences it, that it makes up to us for all our other
losses.”’ Mustapha Mond shut the book and leaned back in his chair. “One of
the numerous things in heaven and earth that these philosophers didn’t dream
about was this” (he waved his hand), “us, the modern world. ’You can only
be independent of God while you’ve got youth and prosperity; independence
won’t take you safely to the end. "

― , Brave New World